The Protestant Work Ethic and Christianity.

[cssmall]

How much we forget, so many years after the fact, that a turn of the century social philosopher named Max Weber detailed how christianity connected to the cogwheel that is the protestant work ethic. You see, in reading over the "freeper's" e-mails and attempting to understand her view (as I was trained by a sociologist to be able to argue both sides, so as best to understand how I would be criticized), that Weber came back to me. So, I found my senior level theory class' reader and went over Weber and Marx, again, being that they are my favorite philosophers.

Weber is primarily known for his studies on American bureaucracy, which, of course, he declares as being perfect in all ways: dependant, reliable, slow moving and impersonal (my own description is that of a working mule). However, Weber goes into his thesis on the Protestant Work Ethic. And, here is where I will begin my own analysis.

No matter how protestant faith says it feels now, it does have a tangible relationship to predestinationalism. However, Weber states that the "elect" are, according to the members of the society, not perfectly fixed in their status. They are ever changing and one must always work very hard to obtain the status, money, property, and any other material culture not listed to illustrate their power.

For those of you out there that know Horatio Alger and the books he is in, I know that you have a decent idea that the American dream involves poor Alger going to work for the nice boss, courting his daughter and marrying into his money. But, the fact is: Alger gets his money and can now show that he is a member of the elect, which leads us to this era.

Tonight as I was rolling my last cigarette in preparation to wind down for the evening, my daughter switched the channel to something designed for kids. The show was "Survivor" for kids and a poor young man was getting angered by a snooty young woman. The dialogue went something like this:

Young man: "You just don't have the life experiences to know how politics works."

Young woman: "I've been to all fifty states and Europe, don't talk to me about life experiences."

I laughed at that and then read the "freep's" e-mails and I have come to the conclusion that we are further regressed in our time frame than we believe we are. Life experiences are bought and speaking about one's trips around the globe illustrated the power differental between the young man and young woman and relates back to the culture of unaccountability and the culture of disownership has grown in America since the fundementalists took over. American culture is only accountable inasmuch as we believe it makes us look better, whether its abortions or jetsetting the globe.

[bobbieinok]

1. didn't Weber study GERMAN bureaucracy?? it set the world standard

[cssmall]

2. He studied that as well, I believe that was his first study.

However, he declared that America had the best bureaucracy.

[LostInAnomie]

3. Can you really blame her.

In her young life she has been bombarded with the idea that who you are is what you own. Genuine character isn't quantifiable and is therefore useless.

The average American has no real idea where their philosophical roots lay, or what they truly believe. Being so alienated from real thought makes us the perfect consumer.

[cssmall]

4. Like the name a lot.

It's all just ostentation.

[Historic NY]

5. Good old Max..........

you brought back hours & hours of study for me. Damn, Germans & their organizational skills & productivity measurement. There is merit in Weber's studies. The issue of loyalty to me plays a heavier role in ethics and today that seems to have gone on the wayside in American business. There are no more cradle to the grave employee. People work for an expected reward ($$$$$)or benefits, when those conditions are not met they move on. It more about fulfilling instant gratification today, the measure being items of status (cell phones, cars, games, etc). The quest for material items & the means to get them has supplanted the old loyalty to the company. We hear talk of traveling pensions, 401k's, today ., I can see a time when the American worker will have a universal pension plan that goes from job to job. It will be made up of a little here a little there. The days of being a company man or woman are over. The Protestant work ethic is a thing of the past in todays work environment.

[Zorbuddha]

6. Wonderful post

What kind of tobacco do you roll (it goes to experience)? I can tell you that it is far easier to quit natural, unadulterated tobacco than tailor-made cigarettes. Not suggesting you quit, just saying.

A fine post, and I can vouch for it, to some degree. The experience of my leaner years has been far richer than my time in fat city.

[cssmall]

9. I am a Drum Halfzware Shag, man, with the occasional Bali Shag Blue.

N/T

[undergroundpanther]

7. You know what ads say about image

Image is Everything.

But in real life..image is NOTHING..Rich man might be a monster inside,or a bubble boy who's ignorance harms ,A Normal man could be bland,or A sociopath,
A poor man,a good person but tormented inside..Or a bad person.Who knows? You can;t know without looking beyond appearances.Somthing our culture is TERRIFIED of doing.

Image is NOTHING but It can be a substitute for knowing who we are..when we have been conditioned to be someone......else...or else..

[loudsue]

8. You're my favorite person, undergroundpanther.

:loveya: Whatever you write just seems to speak volumes.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Ironically, Jesus and his followers didn't work.

“Why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Jesus and his followers went from village to village as "healers" and were given shelter and food and then moved on.

In effect, they were beggers, and disdained the accumulation of wealth.

Jesus himself had been a carpenter, which, at that time, was considered not much more than a day-laborer below even a peasant farmer in status.

The "Protestant work ethic", supposedly based on Christianity is a hoax.